1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a fabric having a plurality of pressing plates. More specifically, the invention relates to a press fabric for drying a paper web, for example tissue, that has a plurality of pressing plates that aid in the pressing and may leave predetermined markings or impressions on the paper.
2. Description of Background
Conventional needle punched press felt surfaces are limited in how well they can physically contact a paper sheet web to effectively “squeeze” water from the web by the size and packing density of the fibers. Using a woven or nonwovens as the pressing surface has not been successful due to problems with the sheet mark, poor drying ability, and/or poor durability. Studies show that using laser punched or sintered metal blocks with high land areas show very high degree of pressing dryness is possible, however no practical applications have been fabricated. A higher degree of physical contact between the paper web in the nip and the pressing of fabric has previously been possible, however they have led to objectionable sheet markings or disruption of the fabrication process.
Pressing fabrics for various applications are known. For example, in WO 2005/075732 to Scherb discloses a permeable belt acting with a press belt for use in a papermachine for the manufacture of tissue and/or toweling, where the web is dried by the blowing of hot air from one side of the sheet through the web to the other side of the sheet. In standard tissue-making, the press felt acts in the same position as a conventional press. That is, one roll is plain faced and the other is plain, grooved or drilled. The fabric acts to dewater the web by transmitting the water to one or more dewatering devices.
With regards to printing or pressing a pattern onto a web, U.S. Pat. No. 6,398,910 discloses a two-layer forming fabric with a structured weave having a background texture and/or a decorative pattern that can be imparted onto the web.
In contrast, U.S. 2005/0087316 discloses the use of a stitched surface embossing element on a press fabric. Here, the stitching is arranged on the first face of the carrier layer to provide a design on the first face which is imparted by imprinting onto a resultant paper product.